Flesh-eating spiders coming to a house near you!

A plague of killer spiders is wreaking havoc all over the country [ALAMY]

An army of false widows, Britain’s most venomous spider, are plaguing the country, biting people as they go.

And it is feared the number of victims of the beasts will soar due to this week’s chilly weather.

The Daily Star reported yesterday how decorator Ricki Whitmore, 39, from Romford, Essex, almost lost a leg to the creature’s poison when he was attacked.

And since we printed his story hundreds of readers from all areas of the country have contacted us to report a surge of sightings and attacks.

It was previously thought the dangerous spiders had only spun their webs in the south and parts of the Midlands.

But our research shows the arachnids, a relative of the notorious black widow, are now breeding in Yorkshire, the north- west and Scotland.

With temperatures outside now plummeting, it is feared millions of them will crawl indoors through drains and windows.

Two people – one of them a schoolboy – have been left hospitalised in south London after they became the latest to be bitten.

AGONY: William’s bite [SWNS]

Horrified mum Susan Frasier described her terror after her 14-year-old son William joined the growing number of victims. She said: “The whole of his forearm had swollen from elbow to wrist. We gave him an anti-histamine and paracetamol.

“The next day he seemed to get better but on Sunday he just got worse and worse. He was feeling ill and had to go to bed.

“At hospital, the doctor seemed very concerned and wanted to keep him in overnight.”

In the same area of the capital, Alexander Giordano, 39, who beat leukaemia when he was a child, was also rushed to A&E after his arm swelled up from a bite.

Experts think global warming has allowed the spiders, originally from the tropics, to thrive in the UK.

This year’s wet early summer, followed by a heatwave, has allowed larger numbers to survive, grow and breed.

David Kalynuk, a satellite dish engineer in Epsom, Surrey, said he is seeing more false widows.

He said: “I first encountered one about a year ago and reported it to my manager.

John Turner managed to catch one of the spiders at his home in Kent [CASCADE]

“I have heard a least five reports of engineers coming into contact with them.

“We haven’t had any cases of the spider biting anyone yet but all our local engineers have taken extra care recently to avoid it happening.”

John Turner managed to capture one he found at his home in Tonbridge, Kent. He said: “It makes you shudder when you look at it.”

A bodybuilder was told he may need his arm amputated after he was bitten by a false widow.

Garie Meadows, 34, has suffered a year of hell since the spider sank its fangs into him as he weeded his allotment.

TORMENT: Garie was told he could lose his arm after he was bitten by a false widow spider [NORTH NEWS]

POISONED: Garie’s arm had to have skin graft [CASCADE]

He said: "I ignored it but later it really started to hurt. I could feel the poison moving up my arm. When I went into hospital the doctors told me I might need it amputated. I thought my whole life was about to be ruined.

"After I pleaded with them they managed to treat it with drugs and a skin graft."

Recruitment worker Sam Oxley, 25, took three months to recover after he was bitten on the thigh.

Sam, of Birmingham, whose girlfriend Miranda Knox was also bitten, said: "I was attacked in my sleep so I didn't see the spider. They told me it was a false widow.

"The venom basically hollowed out my skin, creating a hole in my flesh. I've been left scarred."

Last week, amateur footballer Steve Harris, 22, was sidelined by an operation to cut away the black flesh around his bite.

He said: "I was in agony. I have never had pain like that before."

FLOORED: Footballer Steve [SWNS]

NASTY: This is what can happen when a spider bite goes bad

And Mitchell Adams was gobsmacked to find a false widow in his local kebab shop in Croydon, south London.

He said: "I'd heard about them but didn't expect to see one here, especially when we were getting a takeaway."

It is feared many more will face a similar fate as the species spreads out across the country.